The present invention relates generally to portable communication devices and, in particular, to a portable communication device and corresponding method of operation in which portable communication device functionality is expanded to sense or detect various environmental and/or user-related characteristics.
Many environments and conditions within a human body can have a negative, and even fatal, impact on the human body. Humans have five senses in which to try to detect these conditions or environments, but the senses of humans are severely limited. For example, exposure to certain levels of carbon monoxide can cause death; however, carbon monoxide is a gas that cannot be seen, smelled, tasted or felt by human beings. As another example, overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays can result in sunburn and, over time, skin cancer or other permanent skin defects, yet humans cannot see, hear, smell, taste or oftentimes even feel the UV ray intensity. By the time a person does feel the UV ray intensity, the person is usually already sunburned. As a further example, an overly rapid heart rate during exercise can result in a heart attack or some other undesired medical condition, yet humans cannot easily detect such a condition with their own senses.
In order to help individuals detect potentially dangerous environments and biological conditions, various personal safety detection devices have been developed for measuring environmental and biological characteristics. Such devices include portable UV meters, such as the “SAFESUN” personal UV meter that is commercially available from Optix Tech Inc. of Washington, D.C., battery-operated carbon monoxide detectors, portable heart rate monitors, and so forth. Although these devices warn their users of potential dangers and, in some cases, may provide additional safety information to their users, they provide no assistance if their users are in trouble and cannot heed the warnings.
Portable communication devices are known to include, inter alia, a receiver, a transmitter, a processor and memory. Such portable communication devices may be wireline or wireless devices, such as two-way radios, pagers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and palmtop computers. For wireline devices, the transmitter and receiver are typically embodied in a modem for use with a wireline connection, such as a telephone port connection, a cable access connection, or a connection to one of various other wireline communication services, such as an integrated services digital network (ISDN), or a digital subscriber line (DSL). The modem may be internal to the device, external to the device, or on a personal computer (PC) card (e.g., that complies with the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) standard) that may be inserted into the device when necessary. For wireless devices, the transmitter and receiver may be embodied in a wireless radio frequency (RF) modem implemented on a PCMCIA card, or the transmitter and receiver may be separately implemented as part of the wireless device hardware and software architecture.
Portable communication devices are typically carried on or with their users. Thus, the devices generally reside within the same environment as their users. Portable communication devices are typically used for communicating information to a remote communication device and/or for receiving communicated information from a remote communication device. However, portable communication devices may also be used to run various software applications and store information input by their users (e.g., through a keyboard or some other user interface).
Portable communication devices typically include reliability circuitry that senses certain characteristics of the device itself, such as battery level, ambient temperature, time since last user input, and so forth, to enable the device to alert the user of an undesirable device condition (e.g., low battery level) and/or take corrective action (e.g., shut down or begin executing a screen saving software program). However, existing portable communication devices do not include any circuitry that detects potential environmental or biological safety hazards for their users. Consequently, if a user of a portable communication device desires to enhance his or her awareness of certain environmental or biological conditions, the user must use two separate devices: the portable communication device and a personal safety detection device. The use of two devices is not only expensive, but also cumbersome and undesirable for the users.
Therefore, a need exists for a portable communication device and corresponding method of operation that provide a level of personal safety detection, personal function monitoring, and/or environmental information to or for their users.